Bersih 2.0 condemns BN candidate for vote buying

PETALING JAYA: The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0) opined that the act of giving handouts is not the hallmark of a conscientious politician but rather the willingness to exploit the voter and resources at their disposal for their own political gains.
"Bersih 2.0 would like to take this opportunity to remind all candidates that giving out money in return for votes is a criminal offence.
"At the same time, abusing one's position within the existing government structure to campaign for one's party is also an offence," the election watchdog added in a statement, today.
Bersih 2.0 stressed that it will be monitoring electoral offences for the 14th general election (GE14).
"Everyone is welcome to sign up as an independent electoral observer or lodge a complaint regarding an electoral offence here: www.pemantau.org."
The NGO was responding to Barisan Nasional's parliamentary candidate for the Sungai Petani seat Datuk Shahanim Mohd Yusof who, today, defended her actions of distributing what is believed to be cash handouts at a residential area in the constituency.
She reportedly insisted that what she did was not wrong and was done in her capacity as a senator to help the underprivileged.
The video of her distributing the packets and asking the attendees to vote for BN have since gone viral, earning brickbats from the Opposition among others.
Shahanim is planning to lodge a police report over the matter as she believes her name is being tarnished by the Opposition.
The public are welcome to sign up as an independent electoral observer or lodge a complaint regarding an electoral offence at: www.pemantau.org.